Bungie’s official Marathon account has revealed the first-ever picture of one of the endgame areas called Cryo Archive. The icy part of the UESC Marathon will not be available to players at the game’s launch, but later on, only the players who have leveled up their characters sufficiently will be able to take on the raid-like security and the terrifying entity. This announcement has resulted in a very high level of excitement among gamers, and they immediately started inquiring about pre-orders and beta testing access.
So marathon just took place, and, uh, wow. Bungie just revealed the Cryo Archive level, which is a massive frozen level area on the UESC Marathon spaceship. The catch is that it will not be open for access at the time of the game’s initial release. Not even a little. They will have it securely locked, and the players who will be allowed to enter will have to bring their best equipment—also known as endgame builds—and their chance to get through the vaults with puzzles that are similar to raid-style challenges will be set. It really sounds thrilling, doesn’t it? Of course, if you manage to get past the seventh vault… You will then have to face something so terrifying that even the UESC is scared, and it’s not even the UESC’s perfect cold storage, anyway.
The players’ reaction was totally over the top but in the best way possible, as could be expected. Just look at the responses to the tweet, it is a lot of people begging for a chance to play. Like immediately. One user ‘Grips’ simply asked, “when can we preordeeeeer?” and that was probably the most thought widely across the gaming community. ‘Facelessman’ was crying, “How can I preorder this banger please?” while ‘MIZERY’ offered their whole life to Bungie for playtest access. The excitement is so real it’s practically coming out of the monitor.
But wait, there was a piece of news hidden among the noise! A user ‘cannab1senjoyer’ was the one who asked the million-dollar question, “Is there going to be an open beta?” The official Marathon account actually responded to everyone’s surprise. They confirmed that there will be an “open preview weekend” before the full launch, so everyone can give it a try. However, they didn’t mention a date, which, of course, made everybody even crazier. User ‘RondoBongos’ had this whole imaginary timeline where pre-orders start today and the game surprise-release next week. It’s nice to dream, right?
Predictions concerning the Cryo Archive’s nature are already wild as can be. A gamer ‘party’ claimed that he thinks it will be something like “stella monitis or labs,” which is quite a deep cut for the lore-heads. Another one, ‘SentinelGray’, gave a cool gameplay idea, suggesting that maybe in the Cryo zone your “Heat” mechanic buildup could be slowed, which would be a cool environmental twist. And then there is ‘Spriggy’, who voiced a worry that most of the PvE players share: “I can’t think of anything more annoying than pvp ruining my raid run.” Since Marathon is a PvPvE extraction shooter, that worry is completely justified—will the other players be able to ruin your attempt to uncover these solving raid puzzles? That tension could be sweet or sour.
As an illustration, ‘unfairly’ mentioned that “it looks so good in game,” while ‘Almond Time’ merely communicated the emotion by sharing a screenshot of the game’s environment with most beautiful emojis frustratingly. There was even a funny little critique from ‘Mario’, who joked that “Marathon posting this short clips is way more than the nonexistent Highguard’s advertising campaign.” Ouch! But at the same time, it has a positive effect! People are simply very thrilled about the new game and ‘GreatStoryCorey’ puts it perfectly: “Oooooo. That’s going to be very interesting.”
Nonetheless, it should be mentioned that the thrill was not total. ‘Krispie Kreme’ made a little comment, “How much of D2 assets did u use to remake this game?” which, alright, is a reasonable question for a game by the renowned studio. And ‘DarkSamurai X1’ made a very realistic argument saying they should “release this game now when most people in the northern hemisphere are not going out.” Not such a bad marketing strategy, to tell the truth!
The unveiling of Cryo Archive signifies that Bungie has a master plan for Marathon that is long-term. By making a big and ambitious PvE-centered zone available only after the launch, they are giving a clear endgame goal that is not solely about PvP domination. It ensures a structure, a challenging co-op (or solo?) experience amidst the chaotic extraction. Gamers are also discussing the game’s availability on platforms like PlayStation and Xbox.
